Duke's Seth Curry, defense do in Michigan State

Mar. 30, 2013
|

Michigan State guard Gary Harris (14) grimaces after falling to the floor against Duke during the second half of a Midwest Regional semifinal at Lucas Oil Stadium. Harris scored six points on 2-of-11 shooting from the field. / Brian Spurlock, USA TODAY Sports

by Dan Wolken, USA TODAY Sports

by Dan Wolken, USA TODAY Sports

INDIANAPOLIS - Duke has spent so many years in the upper echelon of college basketball, won so many games and Atlantic Coast Conference championships, that certain things are expected of Mike Krzyzewski's program no matter what players wear the uniforms.

But unless you paid close attention the past few years, all those regular-season wins and high NCAA tournament seeds obscured the fact that one of Duke's trademarks had begun to fade. Even within the Blue Devils' locker room, it took a shocking loss to Lehigh last season for the realization to set in: Duke no longer was a very good defensive team.

Whatever athletic limitations Duke might have had last season, and still has to a degree, this group recommitted to the defensive end from the very beginning of the season. And after a 71-61 victory against Michigan State in the Midwest Regional semifinals, it's clear the Blue Devils are playing defense at a level they haven't attained since winning the national championship in 2010.

"I think we've continued to improve defensively and in the tournament we've played great defense," Krzyzewski said. "Not good defense, great defense. And it's not defense that causes turnovers, but we've put pressure on shots and we haven't given up many second-chance points and the three-point shooting defense has been probably the best thing that we've done in these last two ballgames."

It was one thing for Duke to shut down Creighton last weekend in the round of 32; after all, Duke didn't have the athleticism disadvantage in that matchup that it had against Arizona in 2011 or Villanova in 2009, Sweet 16 games in which Blue Devils just got overwhelmed.

But Michigan State was another matter altogether. This was a big, physical front line with Derrick Nix and Adreian Payne. This was a Spartans team with athletic wings and quick guards in Gary Harris and Keith Appling. This was the kind of roster that has given Duke problems in the second weekend of the NCAA tournament over the last decade (before Friday, only one of Krzyzewski's last eight teams had advanced past the Sweet 16).

But Duke simply turned off the water for Nix (3-for-10 shooting) and Payne (3-for-10) with terrific positioning and constant help coming from the back side thanks to big men Mason Plumlee and Ryan Kelly. Almost every time the Spartans tried to get near the rim out of a halfcourt set, Duke was there to turn them away with a blocked shot or at least force a tough look.

And after Michigan State closed the gap to 47-43 with 12:05 left, the Spartans didn't get another basket 3:34 remained. By then, Duke had built a 62-53 lead and wasn't going to be caught, certainly not on a night it made 24 of 26 foul shots.

"We made it tough around the basket for them," Kelly said. "We sent double-teams after them. Whenever he turned, he had a guy or two right there, and for anybody that's tough.

"After last year, we didn't feel like we had a great defensive team and we took it to heart and we talked about it and we had something to prove. There have been times this year where we've played great defense, and this is the time to do it."

That should bode well for Duke against Louisville, a team that sometimes struggles to score in the halfcourt. And it should be noted that the Blue Devils beat the Cardinals 76-71 when they played earlier this season, though that game took place in the Bahamas way back on Nov. 24 when Louisville was without center Gorgui Dieng.

Still, this does not look or feel like a Duke team that is going to get abused off the dribble time and again, the way it was against Lehigh during the 2012 tournament. It's not going to get pushed around for position on the block by heavier or more athletic frontcourt players. Friday was the test for how far Duke had come defensively, and it passed easily.

"If a team's game plan is just to be tough or physical with us, it's not going to win," Plumlee said.

Really, after building a 47-38 lead with 13:47 left, it never felt as if Duke were even close to losing control against Michigan State because the Spartans just couldn't get enough good looks at the basket. And that was mostly about how precise Duke was in executing its defensive game plan and technique.

Now Duke is back within one game of the Final Four, but just as significant is the return to its identity. The Blue Devils are no longer soft on the defensive end, just hoping to cobble together enough stops to win games (which they were very good at) before getting exposed by better teams. This is the real deal: a floor-slapping force that ripped through one of Tom Izzo's most athletic Michigan State squads in years. This is closer to the Duke we recognize, not the version that couldn't handle guards from the Patriot League last March.